This invention relates to the field of latches usable with sliding and swinging doors, gates, and the like and is particularly adapted to retaining the corners of machine shed doors and fence gates.
While the invention disclosed herein is adaptable to a variety of sliding and swinging doors or gates, it is particularly adaptable to the retention and latching of the large sliding doors commonly found on farm machine sheds. Such machine sheds normally have either one or two large sliding doors to permit tractors, implements, and the like to be moved into and out of the machine shed and such doors are normally slidably mounted and suspended from an overhead track. Because of the substantial size of such doors, they are particularly susceptible to dislodgment by wind and, even in moderate winds, have a tendency to swing and flap. If such flapping is not arrested, its frequency and magnitude can increase until the door is dislodged from the overhead track or even blown off the machine shed.
A partial solution to the wind dislodgment problem has been the driving of one or more heavy stakes or pipes into the earth adjacent the door to resist flapping movement. While this step is partially successful, the pipe is often in the way, is hazardous to those walking near the door and generally must be placed so near the door that it also provides interference with door movement when ice and snow accumulate in winter months. For these reasons, an improved apparatus for containment of machine shed doors is needed so as to retain the door closely against the machine shed in both open and closed positions of the door, to be resistant to ice, snow and extremes of weather and to be nonhazardous to those using the doors. The present invention solves these problems.